NEW ULM — If you want to look at one statistic that reflects on why Sleepy Eye came away with an 18-8 win over New Ulm Cathedral in a Southwest District football game this past Friday, you just have to look at the difference in the number of offensive plays by each team.

The Indians almost doubled the number of the Greyhounds’, running 58 plays to Cathedral’s 32.

Sleepy Eye totaled 25 first downs in the win.

Cathedral coach Denny Lux said the game came down to Sleepy Eye coming out and outplaying the Greyhounds.

“You have to give them credit because they came into the game 0-3 and they could have come in feeling sorry for themselves,” Lux said. “But they came in to win the game and they established that part of it right away. We did not seem to have an answer for it. With football, it is such an emotional game that if one team gets you in a position where you have to overcome that, it takes a lot of leadership and seniors to pull it through and we could not get that done Friday.”

Lux said that he had watched a game film of Sleepy Eye’s contest against Martin County West.

“That was their first game of the season and they should have won that game. I think that they have a team that has a number of wins coming up along the way and they can make some noise in the playoffs — they are doing a lot of good things. We knew that they were a few plays away from being 2-1.”

CHARGERS GET MUCH-NEEDED WIN: Minnesota Valley Lutheran head football coach Jim Buboltz said that he was happy with all three aspects of his team — offense, defense and special teams — in the win over Wabasso last Friday night.

“Our defense played real well — Wabasso scored late in the game but our first group held them scoreless,” Buboltz said. “Our offense moved the ball and made some big plays and we also came up big on special teams. We blocked a punt and picked it up and ran it in for a touchdown. It was one of those games that coaches dream about.

“Our players were disappointed in their performance last week and what you saw Friday was our potential. This game is the building block and step that we wanted to take. We wanted to establish an identity of who we were going to be coming into this game.”

Buboltz said that freshman running back Ben Price had another good game with 22 carries for 120 yards.

“He continues to impress us and Luke [Thompson, Chargers quarterback] ran the veer and option very well. And Cole [Thompson] is a big play player — he makes great catches and comes back and runs the football.”

Buboltz said that Price is a great student of the game. “I think that Cole has taken him under his wing and showed him how to play at a faster and aggressive level. Being a freshman is not easy playing varsity football.”

Sophomore Bradyn Kube also drew praise from Buboltz.

“He got an interception on Wabasso’s first offensive series and came back with a blocked punt later. He made two big plays and he has a lot of career ahead of him and a lot of big plays ahead of him. He is going to be a really good football player for us.”

EAGLES COME BACK AGAINST LUVERNE: The New Ulm Eagles football team rallied late in a 31-20 loss to Luverne last Friday.

The Eagles trailed 25-0 in the third quarter before cutting the lead to 25-20.

“We made some really critical mistakes in the first half with four turnovers and we put ourselves in a hole,” Eagles coach Eric Kauffmann said. “We fumbled three times and had one interception — they were bad mistakes and we just cannot hang onto the ball.

“And early on we were making some mistakes in our blocking schemes. And it is hard when you get down and things are not going your way — you have fumbles and everything goes south real quick. You start second-guessing yourselves. They are kids and they are going to make mistakes. But we have to learn how to bounce back.”